Norwalk police to get motorcycles

By John Nickerson, Staff Writer

Published 2:18 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

NORWALK -- An effort to reintroduce motorcycles to the Norwalk police department after a 76-year absence got an inauspicious start Monday when a borrowed training motorcycle being used by a city policeman caught fire in Fairfield.

Officer John Haggerty was unharmed in the lunchtime incident involving the Kawasaki 1000cc motorcycle. He was able to continue the two-week training class offered by Fairfield police after the Stamford Police Department offered him the use of one of their training motorcycles for the rest of the class, Deputy police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said.

"It was strange," Kulhawik said of the fire. "I was surprised to hear it."

As part of a program to begin a new motorcycle traffic unit, officers Haggerty and Daniel Fitzmaurice were sent to the training class, which began Monday in Fairfield with two borrowed motorcycles from Fairfield, Kulhawik said.

According to the department's history, officers patrolled the city on foot until 1920 when a motorcycle -- the first piece of motorized apparatus -- was purchased. Motorcycles were discontinued a dozen years later.

Police now ply their trade with nearly 80 marked and unmarked vehicles, a prisoner transport van, a mobile police precinct, a SWAT vehicle, four-wheel drive vehicle, animal control vehicles, two police boats, more than a dozen mountain bikes and a Segway Personal Transporter.

Kulhawik said Chief Harry Rilling has been considering bringing back the motorcycle for years.

The plan is to buy two motorcycles to start. A traffic unit will be built around the two-wheelers that will help police deal with traffic-related issues such as speeding, disobeying stop signs and illegal parking -- the leading complaint among city residents, Kulhawik said.

Kulhawik said the plan has to be worked out with the police union because officers in the unit will be have to be placed on call to respond to accidents, conduct radar enforcement and other duties.

"We want to work with the union to make sure both sides are satisfied," Kulhawik said.

The department plans to purchase two motorcycles with grant money or with asset forfeiture funds, Kulhawik said. A third motorcycle could be added to the unit.

The motorcycles have not yet been budgeted and the brand of motorcycle has yet to be determined.

Ten officers applied to become members of the unit before Haggerty and Fitzmaurice were chosen, Kulhawik said.